Few expected either player to be in the championship match at Singapore. In the field of eight players — Serena Williams didn’t seek her fourth consecutive title — Poland’s Radwanska was seeded fourth, Czech Republic’s Kvitova fifth.
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Agnieszka Radwanska (Getty Images)
With Garbine Muguruza and Maria Sharapova having gone 3-0 in round-robin play, the finalists pulled upsets for their title shot.
Two firsts for Radwanska: No player had gone 1-2 in prelims and won the tournament; and no one from Poland had won. To do that, she defeated No. 1 seed Simona Halep, No. 2 Muguruza and No. 5 Kvitova.
It was not easy. Kvitova, a former champion, won the second set but couldn’t hold off Radwanska, who won 6-2, 4-6, 6-3. In fact, Kvitova won the first two games in the final set before Radwanska took command.
